Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting the AIDS virus can be spread to a child by its mother pre-chewing its food.
According to the CDC three such cases were reported in the U.S. between 1993 and 2004. However, it is blood, not saliva, that carried the virus from the mother to the child. In two of the cases the mothers had bleeding gums or mouth sores. At the time of the infections all three children were teething, a time when the children likely had open wounds in their mouths which would have increased the chances of acquiring the HIV virus.
Pre-chewing food is uncommon in the U.S. as it is a practice usually conducted in developing nations where there is little if any access to baby food and mothers are required to pre-chew adult food to make it digestible for babies.
The CDC is now advising that mothers not pre-chew their children's food and are hoping to be able to educate woman and doctors so as to change the possibility of children becoming infected with HIV in this manner.
[Source: YahooNews]
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